Acer AC700-1099 Chromebook Review: Cut to the Bone

Introduction and Design

We have our heads in the clouds. Once a dream, cloud computing is now common and used to support everything from file sharing to email. Here at PC Perspective, for example, we often make use of Dropbox. Storing certain files “in the cloud” is much easier than directly emailing them to and fro.

Google is one of the cloud’s most ardent supporters. The Internet seems to be Google’s answer to everything from emails to file sharing to document editing. All these tasks can be accomplished online through a browser with a Google utility.

When Google announced that it was going to develop an entire OS based off its Chrome web browser there was much shock, speculation and excitement. In hindsight, however, this development was probably inevitable given the company’s love of everything online. Now, Google Chrome OS is a retail product. Let’s find out if a cloud OS can compete with more traditional options.

The system we’ll be using to provide us with a look at Google Chrome OS is the Acer AC700-1099, one of just two Chromebooks currently available. Though it has similar specs to the more well known Samsung Series 5, it’s far less expensive at just $349.99.

Acer’s Chromebook is essentially a large netbook, and its specifications are average when compared to other products of similar size with a similar price. Indeed, the reliance on Atom could prove a weakness now that AMD’s Fusion processors are so prevalent.

Unlike previous reviews, performance will not be heavily weighted here. Instead, I want to provide readers with an understanding of the full Chromebook experience including both the hardware and the operating system. With that said, let’s dive in to the Acer AC700.

Design

While Samsung’s Series 5 netbook proudly wears it Chromium roots on its lid, Acer’s AC700 seems shy about what it’s running. The only branding to be found on the tiny laptop is the Acer logo, laid in chrome plastic along the upper right hand corner. You might expect to see Google branding on the inside, at the very least, but it is again absent. The only label is a tiny Intel Atom logo below the left CTRL key.

The entire laptop seems afraid to attract attention. The only color available is a simple matte black which, although likely to earn the approval of fingerprint-phobes, won’t catch anyone’s eye. There aren’t even any hints of chrome or colored accents, the previously mentioned Acer logo aside. It seems as if Acer management sat down its team of engineers and ordered them to make the company’s first Chromebook as boring as possible.

Bashfulness is particularly disappointing in such an exciting new product. Buying a laptop with Google’s new operating system is the kind of thing that gives geeks reason to jump for joy - yet this bland little Chromebook doesn’t wish to share its exclusivity with the rest of the world.

In theory there would be an increase in battery life due to Chrome OS - being a lighter system - using less resources and CPU cycles than Windows. However if the open source version of Chrome OS (called Chromium OS) does not support the energy saving CPU throttling software for your specific hardware that both OEM preloaded Chromebooks and Windows do, then you may not get a power saving.

A fairly balanced review here but yet again so called "expert" reviewers are being too critical of Google. I have had a Samsung Chromebook for about two weeks and consider its build quality and useability far better than a netbook. Comparing everything against a traditional Windows platform laptop is wrong both from a hardware and software o/s perspective. (Just think of what we thought of Bill Gates after he hammered us with Vista o/s? In the early days of Microsoft just think of the over-the-top charges we all had to pay. Forgotten? I haven't.

Give Google a chance in this marketplace. Cloud computing is a new concept for many computer users but we are only just scratching the surface experiencing this different computer concept.

I do believe as an early adoptee I have probably paid a premium buying a new Chomebook. However I still use a Windows based desktop and laptop, so consider my Chromebook as an experiment. But the experiment has not failed and it is far too soon for reviewers to declare that it will. For instance, if we were to compare an Apple Air book with a Chromebook (either Acer or Samsung) we'd find a vast difference in price. Though the Air book could be considered as a much better feature option, its about three times the price of a Chromebook. On the other hand cloud computing could be far more productive and work out cheaper in the long run.

I say give Google a fair crack of the whip, figuratively speaking, and don't necessarily back Microsoft all the time. Last point to all you critics out there - keep your eye on the number of Chromebooks Amazon are managing to sell at the moment (August 2011), I think you'll be surprised.

Anyway that's my two pennies worth of comment from here in the United Kingdom.

what do you mean by "too critical of Google"? the review is well written, factual, and objective. it's very reasonable to compare the chromium netbooks (chromebooks) to netbooks (Win7starter/home basic), while it's the same segment of consumer usage scenarios.
It's apparent, that the chromium OS platform needs few months/years to develop to usable stage.
regards
marko

Disagree. Chromebook is not made for power users, in fact, look at the audience that Google is targeting in their ads on TV. Chromebook is made for "always on the go" internet junkies that like to tweet and cruise facebook. I think the issue is whether the infrastructure of the cell networks in the U.S. are ready to handle a forward thinking device (thinking that involves high-speed wireless no matter how remote you are). This is a small-end notebook that runs a web browser. OF COURSE you can't compare it to small-end notebooks that run an OS with native applications and have a file manager, etc. Maybe it will catch on when a user can write their midterm paper on the bus to the university while offline and sync back up when they hit campus.

You can't compare Windows 7 netbooks with Chromebooks based on looking at the hardware specs. Chromebooks run a lot faster than netbooks running on equivalent hardware, and they have much longer battery life for the same usage.

There are two very simple reasons for this. The first is that Chromebooks have a minimal OS running only a web browser, whereas Windows 7 netbooks have to run a fat Windows OS, and applications locally. Chromebooks on the other hand only run a minimal OS and a browser, and the applications run on a server in the cloud. That takes up much less memory and CPU time, and requires much less swapping from memory to disk than a Windows netbook. Less CPU time also means less power consumption and longer battery life out of the same hardware.

The second reason is that Chromebooks use a 16GB SSD hard drive which is super fast but super expensive if you want a large drive. Windows needs a large drive because it stores data and apps locally. Chromebooks don't because all it stores locally is the OS which includes the browser - everything else - your data and applications are in the cloud.

The main reason why you can't compare Chromebooks and Windows 7 netbooks is that they are completely different concepts doing completely different things. Despite similar appearance and similar hardware, Chromebooks are more different to Windows 7 than Android is to Windows 7 because of the way they are tied to the cloud. Not only is what you can do with it, and how it operates very different, but the user groups that would be interested in it are very different.

Chromebooks biggest advantage over Windows is that they require zero maintenance. With Windows the user is required to do OS configuration, maintenance and upgrades, driver installation and troubleshooting, app installation and upgrades, anti-virus installation and upgrades, defragging of the disk, reinstallation of the OS and apps from time to time when they become corrupted or unstable, and to learn how to do all this. Chromebooks just work - they do all this automatically without the user doing anything - and this is possible only with an integrated small footprint OS which come from one source and which doesn't permit user modification or user installation of drivers or applications.

Chromebooks zero maintenance is a big deal for non-techie home users who just want to use a computer for Internet access and not much more, and for businesses that have a server based IT infrastructure. As any IT manager managing Windows desktops will know, Windows desktops have a very high maintenance overhead, and while hardware costs are relatively cheap, labour costs required for maintaining Windows are not.

Windows netbooks are fine for cash strapped computer hobbyists who can't cough up the $150 in cash for a better laptop and who don't mind spending time maintaining Windows for free - indeed most computer hobbyists will see this as a labour of love. However if you run a business, you actually have to pay somebody to provision, update, secure and maintain the desktops, and that is not cheap. This works out to be several times the hardware and software cost of the desktops in most businesses. Businesses can save a lot of money on desktop maintenance by replacing Windows desktops/laptops with Chromebooks for those who do not need high end graphical desktops or who do not work out of the office most of the time, and use virtual Windows desktops running on servers accessed through their Chromebooks for those people who need Windows applications. Running applications and virtual desktops on servers makes management much easier to automate and therefore a lot cheaper.

Actually, it's very reasonable to compare the two. I think what you're missing is the fact that Windows and ChromeOS offer two different SOLUTIONS. I suppose next you'll tell me that comparing OSX to Win7 is wrong because zomg they have different focuses.

Comparing two different solutions for single usage scenario is perfectly valid. Nobody's going to complain about someone comparing a sedan with a sports car when they're trying to evaluate the relative value.

We don't have to compare the Chromebook to the Air or anything so extravagant. Instead we can compare it to the netbook. After all, most of the hardware is the same.

Compared to a netbook, this Chromebook offers worse battery life, far less functionality, and so-so build quality. All at a price that's at best on par with a netbook.

Even this Acer, at $349.99, isn't competitive. The $429.99 Samsung Chromebook is ludicrous.

That does not mean that Chrome will go away. But if it remains, it will remain because Google is a gigantic company with billions of dollars that can be used to support it. Based on its current merits, Chrome OS and the Chromebooks are poor choices, and will need some time to mature into a compelling product.

The hardware quality is a lot better, and you are getting an SSD drive, and you are getting the best battery life available on any laptop device bar none, so you can't compare it with a typical high end netbook but apart from that, yes Samsung's price has scope for downward revision. I doubt if price is the reason people would buy a Chromebook instead of a netbook though - they may look similar and may usr similar hardware, but they are just too different in every other way.

You give Google every allowance, while dismissing Microsoft out of hand. I understand ChromeOS is new, but that doesn't meant it gets a handicap bonus. If you're going to play with the big boys, you gotta play.

If ChromeOS is truly an alternative to a traditional OS, it should provide relevant functionality at a minimum. However, it fails to do that, as detailed in the review. Lots of functions aren't there out of the box and installing them can be difficult. How does that "just work"? Also, one USB port is unforgivable. Two is absolutely mandatory -- mouse and thumbdrive or external HDD. The battery life is on par with other netbooks running a full OS.

It's an alternative, sure, but if it wants to be a successful alternative, it needs to replace the relevant functionality AND do it better.

If you need something portable, it looks like a tablet or smartphone is still a better option. Potential for ChromeOS is there, but that doesn't make it an appropriate solution right now.

Agree mostly. I just ordered my ac700 . But I would appreciate if Dell can make chromebook the way we, in US, layout our keyboard. The problem of letting a Taiwanese person layout the keyboard is that they never had to write much and edit all day. I will not be surprised if the person that layout the keyboard had ever need to key in Ctrl-Shift-6. I am a CCIE, and Cisco's equipment use Ctrl-Alt-6 as escape key. That layout is not done by someone with computer science background and uses escape keys a lot. If you are an ultra geek, you need large Ctrl key, not large arrow keys. I have even seen another Taiwanese netbook that skipped the right Ctrl key.

I fail to see why Google couldn't have marketed Chromebook using Ubuntu (or other Linux) that just happen to start Chrome browser instead of desktop.
For intended "basic" user, those who are only interested in access to web, the browser would have been all they used/saw. However, having access to Linux underneath would have provided flexibility and fill holes that are part-and-parcel of being reliant only on Web.

I kept the Acer in mind because I kept seeing, now and then, their tablet with a stylus. The screen flipped and laid down flat on the keyboard and the laptop became a sketchpad. Pity the new google Cromia doesn't allow for scribbled notes or artists.

I wish to know whether Chromebooks support Reticence net connect in India in Kerala state with dongle for accessing the Internet as we do not have WiFi in the place of work Dr.T.V.Rao Professor of Microbiology